Internet rallies around VoiceoverPete after he gets booted from Fiverr

Over the last three months, you might have seen a joke format that asks viewers to help pop culture figures by giving them their credit card number. That meme was the calling card of “VoiceoverPete,” an actor who delivers lines with such an impressive command that people were willing to pay him for custom videos — that is, until the website that hosted his services terminated his account for promoting scams. But VoiceoverPete’s career didn’t die there. Instead, an adoring public has now found a new way to pay Pete thousands of dollars for more memes.

By this point, there are many riffs on VoiceoverPete’s shtick, but the most famous one has to be a Fortnite video uploaded in October. “Attention all epic gamers,” the clip begins. “John Wick needs your help,” it continues, referencing a popular character skin in the battle royale game. To get a win in the game, the video suggested, John Wick didn’t need your shooting skills but rather your credit card number.

The whole thing was obviously a joke, and one that caught on as more people hired VoiceoverPete to make versions of the meme for other media franchises. Pete used Fiverr, an online service that allows people to pay freelancers to do a variety of tasks, from graphic design to education. The voice actor charged $50 per voice-over. (He apparently did not discriminate, either — he’s also taken on parody infomercials aimed at Michael Avenatti and George Soros.)

Unfortunately, the thing that made the joke funny — it’s your local-news meteorologist blatantly “attempting” to scam you — was exactly what got VoiceoverPete banned from Fiverr. Earlier this week, a Fiverr representative told The Vergethat Pete was taken off the website because “Any attempt to defraud or scam others is in clear violation of our terms of service and strictly prohibited.”

Pete hasn’t given up, though. Instead, the voice actor has started a Patreon where, as of this writing, he is pulling over $9,000 per month from viewers who want more meme videos. Anyone who pays a minimum of $5 a month can get a short video from Pete of about 15 words, but higher tiers promise bigger scripts and private chats. The most expensive option, which costs $150, promises two videos that will get priority over other orders, and can also be posted to Pete’s own channel. That top tier also comes with the chance to play games with Pete himself. It, like most of the tiers currently offered, are sold out.

VoiceoverPete has hundreds of patrons from the get-go, which makes sense, given that his previous Fiverr account was closed with hundreds of outstanding orders. Surprisingly, the meme has been around since September, but it only seems to be gaining more traction, especially after Pete got banned.

In exchange for making a video prompting people to subscribe to Blevins on Twitch using their Prime accounts, Blevins has reportedly agreed to stream Fortnite with Pete. YouTuber Grandayy, who originally broke the news that Pete had been banned, got Pete to make said video. The best part is that in this case, asking for a credit card number is totally appropriate.